Friday, September 26, 2008

The kids LOVED him. He ate, and ate, and ate...and became a big fat caterpillar. Then he did this:

It was so amazing to see this transformation! But not nearly as amazing as THIS transformation:

He came out in the evening, so we decided to keep him overnight. We made him a bigger "house" and wanted to get him some food. A quick check on Google told us that he liked flowers, fruit, and animal dung.

We were fresh out of animal dung, so we picked some flowers and found some mandarin oranges. Here is is new home:

The next morning we set him free. The kids were so excited! Now every time we see a butterfly, they say "maybe it's Butterfree?" (His name was changed when he "evolved"...just like a pokemon).

Friday, September 12, 2008

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The first three pictures are of Anna's first day of dance class (last week). My DSL was down, and I never posted pictures! So the 4th picture is dance class...day 2! Anna absolutely LOVES her dance class! They do ballet, tap and tumble. It is so cute! Mom ALSO loves the dance class. After years of buying cleats, shinguards, baseball pants, and basketballs...I am having a ball with tutus and tap shoes! I took a couple of videos through the glass. You can't hear the music; just the mommies chatting. In the first one, Anna gets over excited and the teacher calls her back. I love that girl!

Monday, September 8, 2008

I mentioned in my last post that Adeline has become an ABBA fan. This morning, my friend Stefani dropped off an ABBA CD for her. We popped it in, and she started dancing! She spins until she makes herself dizzy! Sometimes she is on the floor breakdancing. I tried to upload a longer clip, but it was still uploading after 5 hours. In this clip I was only able to capture her signature arm moves. She is so funny!

By the way...please excuse my poor excuse for singing at the beginging of the video.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

This looks like an ordinary penny and an ordinary refrigerator magnet...but it's not. These are the exact penny and magnet that my Adeline choked on yesterday afternoon.

Aaron took my three older children to the movies to see Star Wars. It was just me and Adeline at home. I was writing out a list for Wal-Mart, and she was wandering around the house playing.

Suddenly I looked up from across the room, and saw Adeline with a panicked look on her face. I could tell that she wasn't getting ANY air. I turned her upside down and pounded on her back. The penny and magnet flew out onto the floor. She could breathe, but she was still coughing and struggling a bit, so I called 911. She cried the entire time I was on the phone with the operator, so they could tell she was breathing...but I was a wreck!

She calmed down by the time the paramedics arrived. They listened to her chest, and it was pretty clear that she hadn't aspirated anything. BUT, since I didn't know where she got the magnet, and I couldn't be certain that there weren't more, they wanted me to take her to the ER for an x-ray. I remembered the recall on those magnetix toys a while back. They were worried that if more than one magnet had been swallowed, they would attract and puncture or block her intestines.

I was pretty sure that she hadn't had any others, but decided to take the "better safe than sorry" approach. I tossed some snacks and books into my bag, and we were off to the ER.

They put us in a trauma room, because it was the only one available. Good idea...put the wild 14 month old in the room without a door and with lots and lots of fun stuff that she shouldn't play with...you know, like a crash cart. The books I brought kept her occupied for about 10 minutes. So she spent the other 2 1/2 hours getting into every cabinet and drawer, and running out of the room laughing her head off as I chased after her.

As if the adrenaline and stress hadn't worn me out enough!

I did discover something really fun...Adeline is an ABBA fan! I had seen the move "Mamma Mia" a few hours earlier (and loved it, by the way!) I was desperately (and futily) trying to keep her up off the gross hospital floor (I could just see her picking up some horrible disease while we were there...yeah, I'm kind of a germaphpobe) Anyway...I had her in my arms singing and humming (mostly humming) the few ABBA songs that were in my head from the movie. She stayed perfecly still, listening to me hum/sing. As soon as I stopped she was off again attempting to destroy the hospital (we call her baby-zilla at home). She laughed like crazy as a danced her around the room.

Three hours and a small forture later, we found out that there were no magnets in Adeline's little tummy.

I am incredibly grateful to my Heavenly Father that everything turned out ok. There are so many "what-if's" that could have made this a terible tragedy. We are so blessed! And we are so getting rid of all those small round magnets! It never occured to me that they are the exact size of an airway! This has been a great opportunity for our family to talk about keeping small things off the floor. We were also able to remind them that we pray everday that our family will be safe. Heavenly Father answered our prayers.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Actually...I'm not. I'm a planner. I plan, research, and over-think everything in advance. It's just who I am. If you have read The Color Code...I am not a yellow.

So it was really fun to be spontaneous today!

We put the kids to bed last night, same as always. (Well, not exactly the same since it wasn't a school night. The boys are on a "non-traditional" calendar, so we had a 5 day weekend, and didn't go to school Tuesday.) Anna had preschool though, so I told them that we would drop her off at preschool in the morning, and we would go to the library.

After they were in bed, Aaron and I were talking about what a bummer it was that he had to go back to work on Tuesday. Then we thought, hey...how about you DON'T go!

So we decided to have a fun family day on Tuesday...but what to do?

Let's go to Silver Dollar City!!!

We tossed snacks and sunscreen in the backpack, and got everything ready for a fun day an an amusement park. This morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and headed out the door to take Anna to preschool.

The kids got in the van and noticed there was a bag full of coloring books, gameboys, toys, snacks, etc. Aiden was so confused. "How did this get here?" he asked as he found the current book he is reading.

Everyone found something to occupy them, and we had been on the road about an hour before they started to get suspicious. Aren't we taking Anna to preschool? Are we almost to the library? I had so much fun revealing the surprise! We're on our way to Branson!

They were all ecstatic, of course. It was such a fun, laid back day with the 5 people I love to be with. The rain even held out for us! It was the perfect finish to a great weekend! Watch out...I'm starting to get the hang of spontaneity!

Abbott is working so hard to pump those frogs

Adeline is always so happy to get out of the stroller. She had fun with these fake ride seats. She has gotten so busy!

Anna collected a beautiful leaf bouquet. I think 100 old people stopped her to tell her how cute she is and how pretty her leaves are. She really eats that up!

Aiden was so brave! He rode the Giant Barn Swing for the first time. It looks scary...notice he's with his dad!

Monday, September 1, 2008

Someone illegally posted the unfinished manuscript of Stephenie Meyer's Midnight Sun (Twilight from Edward's POV) on the internet. She is really ticked off! Midnight sun was supposed to be her next project, but she has decided to postpone it indefinitely. She said that if she wrote in her current state of mind it would end up with James winning and killing all the Cullens.

I think she will finish it eventually, but not anytime soon. But...there is a silver lining. She posted what she has on her website. She didn't want her fans to have to choose between being honest and sacrificing. Isn't she great :)

So...you can read the first 12 chapters of Midnight Sun on her website!!!! Yippee...well, I am saying yippee now. I'm sure when I get to page 290 I'll be singing a different tune!

Also, she just added the Breaking Dawn FAQ. It explains the whole...well, no spoilers...you know how it was possible...wink, wink.

Aaron and Aubrey recently celebrated 12 wonderful years together! We have four amazing children. Aiden is 11, Abbott is 9, Anna is 6, and Adeline is 3. We are so blessed. Our house is a crazy circus, and I wouldn't have it any other way!